A Matter of Heart and Mind
by CASE iN POiNT
Summary: All seems well after a regular trip back to the beginning of the day...until our heros find out that it isn't. I really hope that we don’t stay this way forever, says Yumi. And frankly, I second that. FINISHED!
1. Confusion

"_Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;  
__And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."  
__-A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

* * *

_

**CONFUSION  
**…_all different fonts and sizes and shades of pencil color…  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
_

"Return to the past now!"

------------

Yumi woke up in her bed, safe and snug. She realized that it wasn't morning of the next day, but morning of the day she had just been in…again. Sound weird? That's because it was.

"Sweetheart! Get up! You're going to be late for school." Her mother's voice drifted to her from downstairs, just like every morning. Yumi yawned, stretched, threw her covers back and quickly dressed into her normal black clothes. Then she ran downstairs with her black backpack in hand. She dropped the backpack next to the door on the way to the kitchen.

Her mom met her in the kitchen with a big grin. Yumi said her good mornings and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She loved cereal, all crunchy and sweet and soggy when they soak in the warm milk.

Breakfast was her favorite meal of the day. It got her ready for anything the day could dish out…again…

------------

"Rise and shine, Ulrich!" Odd said, mauling Ulrich violently with his white pillow. Ulrich jumped and awoke, growling and attempting to tackle Odd to the ground.

"Odd, shut up and go back to sleep. It's too early."

"Early? It's not early! It's time for breakfast! And we wouldn't want to miss that now, would we?"

"I hate breakfast. Breakfast is too early."

"Too bad, buddy boy." Odd wriggled his eyebrows and prepared for his final and ultimate plan. In one great bound, almost imitating what he could do in Lyoko, he leapt up onto Ulrich's bed and started to bounce around.

"ODD! OKAY, OKAY, I'M GETTING UP!"

Odd jumped down before Ulrich could kick him off the bed painfully. "Atta boy. Get dressed and let's go."

------------

"I hate reliving days," Ulrich said, lounging on a bench in the sun as the group waited for Yumi and for class to start…again…for the day. "You think it'd be good for students like me who never pay attention the first time class comes around. But I just end up fallingasleep even earlier the second time around because I've already heard all the things the teachers have to say, which isn't anything important anyway."

"Oh well," Odd said, glancing up as Jeremie joined the two of them on the bench underneath a tree. "Hey Jeremie, you talk to Aelita? How is she after that last Xana attack? She kind of looked drained when I last saw her."

"Huh?" Jeremie asked, totally zoning out. He had been staring at the school's main gate entrance, which was a little ways off from here. "What did you say, Odd?"

"I said, have you talked to Aelita yet? I want to know if she's okay. She was shaken up the last time I…"

"Oh, I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet," Jeremie said absent-mindedly. His eyes could have drilled a hole through the main gate; he was looking at it so hard.

"What do you mean you haven't had a chance to talk to her yet?" Ulrich asked, looking at Jeremie with a raised eyebrow. "You always talk to her in the morning. Actually you always talk to her any chance you get."

"I do?" Jeremie asked, not hearing a word Ulrich had just said. Odd and Ulrich exchanged puzzled glances and shrugged.

Suddenly, a familiar black haired girl came strutting onto school campus. She stopped, scanned the surroundings, and found her guy friends. Then she smiled and started walking towards them.

"Yumi!" Jeremie yelled and immediately ran toward her. Ulrich and Odd were left behind in his wake, glued to the bench, stunned.

"Since when was Jeremie ever that excited to see Yumi?" Odd asked with wide eyes.

Ulrich had the same exact expression on his face. "I dunno."

"Well, aren't you going to do something about it?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because Jeremie is totally jumping all over the girl you have had a crush on for like, forever!" Odd said, throwing up his hands for emphasis.

"I had a crush on her?"

"Ulrich, what is wrong with you today?"

"You should ask that to Jeremie."

"True…"

As Yumi got closer, the two boys that were still sitting on the bench could tell that she was getting annoyed with Jeremie's constant excited chatter. "Um, yeah, good morning to you too, Jeremie. What's up with you today? Take extra happy pills? Hey, Odd." Yumi said with a smile, brushing back some of her shoulder length black hair and seating herself down next to him. Jeremie immediately sat down next to Yumi.

"Hey, Yumi," Odd said casually, frantically sifting through his brain to try and remember the last time Yumi actually said hi to him before Ulrich. He couldn't find a time before this one. "How's it going?"

"Same as last time we relived today," Yumi answered with a faint smile. "Nothing special."

"Uh, okay."

Awkward silence…

"So…" Ulrich started, wondering why such good friends would suddenly have an awkward silence like this. He was cut off, however, by a ringing tone that carried practically throughout the whole school grounds.

"Ulrich!" Sissi strutted up followed by a few of her closest girl friends. Yumi's eyes grew into round circles. Was Ulrich…blushing?

"Hey Sissi," Ulrich said, smiling at the principal's daughter. Sissi stopped in her tracks like she had just seen a wolf that was going to eat her.

"Ulrich, are you okay?"

Ulrich's smile faded. "What did I do?"

"You're saying hi to me. You usually tell me to go away."

"Why would I do that?" Ulrich said, his voice becoming slightly nervous. He looked at his friends for support desperately. Odd was too shocked to say anything, looking from Ulrich to Sissi to Ulrich to Sissi to Ulrich to Sissi…

"He would never do that, I assure you, Sissi," Yumi jumped in suddenly, trying to help her friend. Unfortunately that only made the situation worse. Sissi practically fell over.

"Y-Yumi? Why are you…" Sissi suddenly looked like she couldn't take it. She turned on her heel and ran. Ulrich looked devastated. Yumi drew back and covered her hand with her mouth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ulrich! What did I say?"

"No, its not your fault, Yumi. She just…doesn't like me." Ulrich hung his head and looked at the ground dejectedly.

"Aww…no, Ulrich, I'm sure she still likes you," Yumi went over to her friend and patted his shoulder. Suddenly she snapped out of it. "What am I doing? Why am I comforting you because Sissi just ran away from you? Usually I'd be happy."

Ulrich looked up at his Japanese friend. "Yeah, that is weird. And how come now all I can think about is Sissi and how pretty she is?"

"You think Sissi's pretty?" Odd said incredulously, poking his friend in the shoulder. "I never thought I'd hear that one."

"Okay guys, this is weird. Maybe I should have talked to Aelita this morning. But the weird thing is, and here I kind of told you guys a white lie…I didn't even think of her all this morning. I _forgot _to talk to her. All I could think of was…" Jeremie said, trailing off.

"Something definitely is wrong," Yumi said, standing back up straight again and looking at her three best friends. "Jeremie, talk to Aelita and ask her if anything weird is going on in Lyoko." Then Yumi stopped and looked up at the sky in a pondering motion. "But the odd thing is, nothing feels out of place."

Just as she finished talking the bell rang. The four of them went to collect their backpacks and headed off to class, wondering what the hell was going on…

------------

"Now, class, as you can see on this board here, the first key words about the French Enlightenment period are 'opposition to authority'. Does any of you have any idea what that could mean? What do we mean when we say 'opposition to authority'?"

Yumi snorted mentally. _You mean like how we sneak out of classes to go fight Xana in the warehouse? That counts as opposing your authority, doesn't it?_

Yumi was in history class and as always in history class she was bored out of her mind. Especially since she had done all this before. She watched as the boy in front of her blew the same fly out of his face in the same way as before. Yep, this was going to be boring. Yumi doodled on her notebook page, not paying attention.

"The French Enlightenment philosophers were in many ways influenced by the British philosophy, in particular the work that John Locke did…"

Yumi yawned. Then she looked down at what her hands had doodled. Suddenly she became wide-awake and animated. She had just drawn a Y + O and a heart around it. She blushed as she reached for her eraser and her heart did a quick flutter, but her mind was puking. _What the crap is going on? Did I just have a misprint and write an "O" instead of a "U"? AHHHHH…_

"They thought now that it was essential to remain skeptical of all inherited truths and that the individual should find their own answer to everything, something more of you students should do at this school, I might add." The teacher chuckled at his own lame joke. No one joined in the laughs. "Anyways, class, you should be taking notes on this. It is important. It will be on your test…"

Both Yumi's mind and heart relaxed in relief as the little heart drawing disappeared under her relentless gum eraser. _Whew, glad that's gone_, both parts said in unison. Yumi put her pencil back down to the paper and started to doodle absentmindedly again. At least it looked like she was taking notes even though she wasn't. She had read all this in the textbook already. No need to regurgitate it back to the class. The class could read…with a few exceptions…

"The Enlightenment philosophers decided that it was their duty to lay a foundation for morals, religion, ethics and the like in accordance with man's immutable reason. Now, can anyone tell me what that means, in simple, today terms?"

Yumi looked back down again to see how her "notes" were coming along. She nearly gasped out loud at what she saw and choked it back at the last second. Odd's name was written in all different fonts and sizes and shades of pencil color on her notebook page. Her hand lunged for her eraser again. Her heart was beating like crazy. Her mind told her that she was going crazy.

_Something is definitely wrong._

When Yumi finished erasing all traces of the name she had been writing over and over, she gently put her eraser down and didn't touch her pencil again. Instead she put her head down on her desk and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

She should have tried sleeping the period away from the very beginning.

* * *

Author's note: All right. Now, before you guys start yelling at me about how I should be getting to work on my other two major stories, let me just say that this is just a random five chapter story I thought up while having a conversation to myself when I was playing Spider Solitaire. Don't make fun of me! Anyway, of course, like any random idea of mine, it had to come out on paper, so I obliged my hand and brain and did so. Don't worry about my other stories; I already finished this one so I can devote my time to my other stories. I just created this quickie purely for your enjoyment. I hope you had fun reading this chapter and pwease drop a review! Thanks! 


	2. Investigation

**INVESTIGATION  
**… _anything other than at face value…  
_---------------------------------------------------

Mrs. Hertz was calling role. It was a bit hard because her class was _very_ loud and obnoxious, like it was everyday. Finally in frustration, she gave up and flipped to the seating chart in the attendance binder. She was going to take role from there without calling out names and losing her voice.

Odd leaned back in his chair and caught the attention of Jeremie sitting behind him and Ulrich. "You talk to Aelita yet?" Odd half yelled. It was too loud to talk in any other way.

"No. Why?"

"I don't know. I just want to know what's up. Tell her hi from me when you do."

"Since when were you all interested in when I talk to Aelita?"

"Since…today?" Odd said, looking as if he was thinking. "I don't know. Just tell her I said hi." Jeremie nodded and rolled his eyes when Odd turned back around to face front.

Ulrich wasn't talking or looking out the window in a dreamy fashion for once. He was bent over a piece of paper and a pencil, scribbling away. Odd noticed his friend's peculiar behavior (not like it was anymore weird than what had just happened that morning) and poked his friend on the arm a couple of times. "Ulrich, Ulrich, Ulrich, Ulrich…what are you doing?"

Ulrich shook Odd's poking finger off. "Stop it, Odd. You're going to mess me up."

"But what _am_ I going to mess up, hmm?" Odd leaned over Ulrich's shoulder to inspect the piece of paper. Then he sat back with a sly grin. "Are you writing a note to…_Sissi_?"

Ulrich didn't look up. "So what if I am? What's it to you?"

"Nothing," Odd said, shrugging and slumping down in his chair. "I just never thought I'd see you do that either. It was enough that you said she was pretty…"

"Odd," Ulrich said, finally turning to look at his friend. "I'm just going to apologize to her for whatever happened this morning and ask what it was that bothered her. It's not like I'm asking her out or anything."

"But she likes you too, you know. And if you like her now, then you should go out with her. At least you should ask her out to somewhere."

Ulrich sighed and stared out the window briefly. "She doesn't like me, Odd. She's way too good for me."

Odd didn't hear. He was busy trying to find his portable CD player in his backpack.

After a while, Ulrich resumed his hunched position and concentrated on writing his note. Who knew that writing a note like this was so hard? He couldn't seem to find just the right words. He looked up when he heard Sissi's ringing laughter. She was talking to Herb and Nicolas in loud voices. Ulrich felt a twinge of jealousy. Those good for nothing twerps didn't deserve her either and yet they stuck to her like they had been super glued. Ulrich's left hand clenched into a fist by instinct. Then it relaxed and Ulrich's eyes widened. His mind had finally turned on. _What am I doing? I'm jealous of…Herb and Nicolas? WHAT?_

"Hey, Ulrich. Ulrich?" Jeremie was tapping him on the shoulder. Ulrich turned around, trying to control his confused mind and thoughts. Jeremie was looking at him with a nervous smile on his face. "You would probably know better than anyone…what does Yumi like? Flowers? Jewelry? Stuffed animals…what?"

Ulrich looked Jeremie oddly. "Why…?" he asked slowly, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Oh, I just wanted to get her something."

"Why…?"

"Well, I don't know, I just feel like it. She's just such a great warrior and all and she works so hard when she goes on her missions in Lyoko and she's just so beautiful and so full of grace that I felt the need and felt compelled to get her something as a thank you present."

"Uh…" Ulrich was taken aback and trying to find the words when he was speechless. Jeremie was practically swooning. "Do you like her now or something?"

"Oh, no, of course not! How ridiculous. Why would you think that? That's insane!" Jeremie said in one breath, everything coming out in a jumble of mumbles. Ulrich's eyebrows rose.

"Okay. Well if you are so sure that you don't like her, then just get her flowers or something," Ulrich said and turned back to work on his note…

"Well, Ulrich, what if I do like her? Then what should I get her?"

Ulrich sighed. "Flowers."

"Oh, okay then. Thanks a lot, Ulrich!"

Ulrich didn't grace Jeremie with a response. He turned back to his note, his mind totally off track. _This is weird. I like Sissi. Jeremie likes Yumi. Odd probably likes Aelita. Who does Yumi like now?_

And the odd thing was, he felt no jealousy, no anger, no agitation. That is, until he saw Herb put a hand on Sissi's shoulder because he was laughing too hard at something or other. But he felt a little satisfaction when Sissi brushed the guy's hand off like it was something unclean. Ulrich turned back to work on the note, more determined than ever.

And so the class started.

------------

"Hey guys," Yumi said nervously, glancing at Odd edgily as she sat with them in the cafeteria. "How were classes?"

Odd grunted disapproval, which Yumi laughed at, a little harder than usual. Ulrich gave her the why-are-you-even-bother-asking-they-sucked look. Jeremie was the only one that beamed at her and said, "Although we still learned about fascinating things today, I even thought it kind of laborious, you know, considering we learned it all last time around."

Yumi gave Jeremie a little smirk. He was always on the academics' side. "Well, I slept through the whole history period."

"Yeah! Go Yumi!" Odd said, holding up a hand for a high five. Yumi immediately gave him the high five, blushing as she did. Ulrich caught the exchange and his heart went all suspicious. _Aw, look, Yumi likes Odd!_ But then his mind went nuts. _YUMI LIKES ODD? WHAT THE HECK?_

"Hey, Jeremie," Ulrich said hesitantly. "Have you talked to Aelita?"

At the mention of Aelita's name, Odd turned away from Yumi excitedly. "Yeah, yeah, did you talk to her?" Yumi frowned at Odd's sudden turn of interest and decided to brush it off as concern. She turned to face Jeremie was well.

Jeremie was just about to speak when Sissi's hands were placed delicately on the edge of their table. "Ulrich," Sissi said sweetly, not looking at anyone but the boy she was addressing fondly. "I just wanted to say that…" she looked down bashfully but Yumi didn't miss the haughty look Sissi shot at her, "…that I really appreciated your note. I forgive you." Then she turned on her heel and left.

The four of them were speechless as they all watched Sissi walk away. Ulrich was blushing immensely and he had a faint trace of a smile on his face.

The silence was broken when Yumi said in a dazed voice, "And I'm not even jealous."

"Okay," Odd said, clapping twice to snap his friends out of their trances. "Jeremie, talk to Aelita. Tell now."

"Well," Jeremie said hastily. "I did talk to Aelita and yes Odd I did tell her you said hi. But Aelita said that nothing strange has been acting up in Lyoko. Everything is as it should be after we foil one of Xana's plans. She said she would check for us in the database, however, to see if Xana messed with anything other than at face value. I should check the super computer as well as soon as possible."

"Okay," Odd said, "here's the plan. I'll go with Jeremie to the lab now and if we go past lunch and into classes, Ulrich you have to cover for us."

Yumi frowned, wanting to spend as much time with Odd as she could. "But why can't we all go during lunch?"

"Jim," the three boys said at the same time. Yumi sighed and sat back, giving up. They were right and she couldn't argue, although her heart was screaming about how unfair it was. Her mind agreed with them.

"All right," she said as Odd and Jeremie got up to leave. "Have fun and be careful."

------------

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Odd said in a bored voice, eating a bag of chips he had snagged from his lunch before he had dumped the tray.

"Anything out of place, anything unusual…" Jeremie said, eyes scanning code after code.

"Are we going to get to talk to Aelita?" Odd asked hopefully. After all, that was why he had come in the first place.

"What is it with you and this obsession with Aelita lately?" Jeremie asked, annoyed that Odd kept on interrupting his concentration.

"I just…like her, okay? I like her," Odd finally admitted, smashing up his empty chip bag as he said it.

"Who do you like, Odd?" Aelita's voice suddenly said in a joking tone. Odd gaped and scrambled up at the same time also slipping and tripping over his own feet as he struggled to get to the computer where Aelita had just appeared.

"Hey, Aelita," Jeremie said kindly, ignoring his immature friend. "You find anything?"

"Hey, Aelita!" Odd said perkily, practically out of breath from trying to get to the computer.

"Hey, Odd," Aelita said with an amused look. "And yes, Jeremie, I found something interesting. You'd better take a look."

Suddenly, Aelita's window moved to the side and another window that covered one half of the screen, top to bottom, popped up to the right of Aelita. Odd waved at her while Jeremie scanned the codes that Aelita had sent. Then he leaned back and whistled. "Wow, what a mess." Aelita nodded in agreement.

"What? What's happened?" Odd asked, immediately wanting to get in on something if Aelita knew about it.

"It seems that Xana hasn't really done anything, this time. Well, let's say he didn't play the major role in it. What really caused all this to happen was you three warriors."

Odd staggered back as if he had been hit. "What!"

Jeremie and Aelita nodded at the same time. "It seems like the return sequence was somehow marred, or disturbed, or interrupted with a disturbance when Aelita punched in the code at the activated tower," Jeremie explained, turning back to read the code again.

Aelita backed Jeremie up. "Yes. I do remember feeling the tower shake when I punched in the code."

"Oh, wait," Odd said, holding up a finger while racking his brain. "I remember now! Ulrich, Yumi, and I all accidentally hit the tower at the same time! One of my laser arrows had missed, Yumi's fan hit while curving back to her, and Ulrich's sword had clanked into the side by accident." Odd looked pleased for a second for his detective work. Then he realized that what they did hadn't been a good thing. "Oops."

"Oops is right, Odd. I'm afraid that once Xana realized that the return sequence was already disrupted, he decided to go ahead and use it to his advantage by trying to take over our minds. But instead he missed and took control of…"

"…our hearts," Odd said, the intelligent part of him coming out for once and suddenly understanding why everything was so wrong.

Jeremie nodded. "It seems the only way we can fix this is if you three go back to Lyoko and help Aelita go back into the tower so we can go back in the past again, without disturbances this time."

"Another day of the same boring classes? God, Xana is definitely getting smarter at finding ways to kill us," Odd mumbled off to the side as Jeremie mulled over his plan.

"But, Jeremie, we can't do that without an activated tower. And right now everything is normal," Aelita said worriedly from the screen.

"How disgustingly ironic: the one day we want Xana to attack…he doesn't," Jeremie said with a little resentment in his voice. Suddenly, he sat straight up in his chair. "Aelita, you yourself are part of Xana and can hack into Xana's database, right?" Aelita nodded slowly, not sure about what Jeremie was thinking.

Jeremie's eyes gleamed behind his glasses as he had found the solution. "Can you hack into it for me one more time?"

* * *

Author's note: All righty, I hoped you enjoyed that. Thank you so much to American-Kitty, aZn sIsTeR 92, Doggiegal, Vic92091, Angels 'n Dreams, Moonlit Sea, and aZn dReAmEr xD! You guys reviewed my new story, so mucho thanks. Most of your guesses are correct (it isn't that hard to tell), but no, American-Kitty, I did not forget about Aelita. You'll just have to see about her later in the story (like, almost towards the end). And also, just a warning that I may not be able to update my stories as quickly as I used to because my dad is restricting my internet time to one hour a day (GRRRR...I'M SO ANGRY) because he's a stupid head like that. So, please don't be mad. This also goes for all my stories. But nevermind that now. Pwease review and I hope you enjoyed it! 


	3. Virtualization

**VIRTUALIZATION  
**…_something between horror and blankness…  
_-------------------------------------------------------

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Yumi asked Ulrich as he finished off his second note to Sissi of the day, making it a record. Actually, it was already a record with one, but two made it even more so.

Ulrich looked nervously down at the piece of paper as he handed it to Yumi to fold into thirds, not trusting his hands at the moment. He was afraid it would mess the thing up and besides, Yumi was the one best at arts and crafts out of the four of them. She took it gently and set to work, measuring out the paper with her practiced eye.

"No, but I feel like I have to try. I mean, what if I lose her to some pretty boy, show off guy that doesn't even care about her feelings? What would I do then? I don't think I could…live…" he said, slowly, realizing that to his mind, the things he were saying sounded so wrong. At least, if they were directed at Sissi, which they were.

"Don't worry about it, Ulrich. As long as you are sure you want to do this, you'll be fine. You know what? I personally think she's crazy about you," Yumi gave Ulrich a playful and friendly nudge in the ribs as she creased down the last fold to make it sharp and then handed the folded paper back to Ulrich. "So, where are you going to take her?"

"Movies," he said, gingerly clutching the paper with his fingertips. "I can't sneak out with her though, which sucks. I mean, she is the principal's daughter."

"Oh, I don't think she'd mind sneaking out with you," Yumi said, winking at her friend. He scowled at her. "Now," Yumi continued. "You can't just give her a note. You have to give her something with the note."

"Like…?" Ulrich asked. Yumi smiled and said, "Follow me."

She led him in a winding path through the campus. At one point, they passed Jim who glared at them suspiciously. After five minutes or so, they arrived at the back of an obscure classroom and Yumi pointed at the bushes that were underneath the window.

"So, you want me to give her a bush with the note," Ulrich said incredulously, glaring at Yumi. "Not funny, Yumi."

"No, you idiot," she said, leaning into the bush and seemingly looking for something. "Look closer."

Ulrich walked closer and then saw the red blooms among the leafy greens. "Red…roses?"

"Yep," Yum said, proud at her handiwork. "Aren't they beautiful?"

"They're perfect," Ulrich breathed, placing his hand gingerly on the nearest one to feel its silky smooth petals. Then he suddenly frowned. "How are we going to pick one though? They have thorns everywhere."

"For that," Yumi said with a grin, "you're on your own, loverboy."

"WHAT? Yumi! That is so not fair! Come on! Just help, please? Fine. Ow, OW. This hurts, Yumi, it really hurts. And I can't believe you are just standing there laughing. I mean, how heartless can you…OUCH! OW! Anyway, how are you so sure that she even likes flowers? OW OW!"

Yumi had to control her laughter with an effort before she said, "Because I like flowers."

------------

Yumi was in math when the power suddenly cut out and the lights above exploded violently in a spray of sharp glass. Her class immediately went ballistic as everyone dove under their desks. The ones that weren't so lucky and as fast got cuts everywhere that immediately started bleeding. Yumi was one of the lucky ones, however, and in the impending chaos, no one noticed when she grabbed her bag, leaving her math book and everything else she had taken out on her desk, and ran for the door.

_How can this be happening? _Her brain was pounding as she flew into the deserted halls, the glass from the lights in the overhang all over the ground, glinting at her as she ran past. _We just stopped this from happening last time. How could Xana have found away to attack us again in the same way?_

Skidding violently, she turned into another hallway and continued running, knowing exactly where she had to go. Glass crunched beneath her black boots.

------------

Ulrich immediately yanked Sissi by the arm and pulled her under the desk as soon as the lights died in the middle of French class. Sissi screamed loudly, like every other girl in the class as glass sprayed them. Sissi was sobbing into Ulrich's chest, clutching him tightly for protection. Ulrich felt a warm glow spread through him but he still remembered to check if Odd and Jeremie were okay. They had thrown themselves under the desk in time as well, but their faces were stony with worry.

"Whatever you do, Sissi, stay under the desk and don't come out, okay? And make sure no one else does either," Ulrich instructed, his face inches from Sissi's terrified one.

"But, but, Ulrich, are you leaving? How can you leave me?"

"I have to, Sissi. I wouldn't if I could, but I have to." On impulse, he kissed the top of her head. "Stay safe for me, okay?" Then he grabbed his backpack and took off out of the classroom after Jeremie and Odd, with the teacher feebly calling after them to stay put.

------------

"We have to go to the principal now and evacuate the school," Jeremie said as soon as the gang had reunited at the bench under the trees. They had all known to come here because that's what they had done last time this happened. "Remember? Soon, the windows will blow out and that will cause even more major damage."

"But shouldn't at least one of us go to Lyoko? Get a head start?" Yumi suggested hopefully. She had no desire to help evacuate the school once again as she remembered last time Sissi had practically slapped her, getting all "you're not the boss of me". Of course, then she had squealed in terror and led the pack when the first window had shattered.

Jeremie shook his head. "I'm really sorry, Yumi, but we need as many people as we can to stay and help evacuate. Yumi, you and Ulrich start evacuating classes. Odd, you'll come with me to the principal. Hurry guys, we can't take all day, or else we are stuck the way we are forever."

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked, but Ulrich was already running. He pulled her by the arm after him.

"We have to evacuate classes, Yumi. Questions later." Yumi shook Ulrich off and caught up with him as they rounded a corner in a sprint.

"I still don't get how Xana could find a way to attack us again in the same way," she said through heavy breathing. Then she and Ulrich skidded to a stop in front of their destination. "Oh, no," Yumi said as Ulrich yanked the door open, "not your class again."

"Yes, my class," Ulrich said as he stepped into the classroom. "SHUT UP!" he yelled, which he knew from experience would do the trick. Immediately everyone that was screaming, shouting, and otherwise going insane froze. "We need all of you to evacuate to the front of the school immediately. Try not to panic, as long as you hustle you will be fine." Immediately there was a pack of students running for the door. Yumi tried to direct traffic, telling everyone to run to the front of the school. She groaned inwardly when Sissi came up to her.

"Okay, if she's part of this," Sissi said, pointing a condescending finger at Yumi, "then I'm not buying. What if we get more hurt in the front of the school?"

"Sissi," Yumi said, sighing heavily. "Stop wasting time and get going."

"You're not the boss of…" she started, but Ulrich grabbed her from behind by the shoulders and pushed her gently after the rest of the students.

"Just go, Sissi. I told you to stay safe for me." Sissi hesitated and then ran off after her classmates as well, taking one last longing look at Ulrich before disappearing around a corner.

"Okay, Ulrich, let's go," Yumi said, taking off for the next classroom.

------------

The evacuation, despite Jeremie's stress of doing it quickly, took forever, just like last time. The sun was already down a good time and the air had already grown cold as the last student was accounted for. The gang managed to slip away at the soonest chance they got and they sprinted down to the manhole. As Odd slipped in last, he heard the all the glass in the school shatter, getting a resounding shriek from the entire student body. Then he covered up the manhole again after him and the sound was blocked out.

"And the crowd goes wild," Odd informed his friends. Yumi just barely heard him as she had already pushed off on her skateboard. "We'd better hurry."

Jeremie checked his watch as he mounted his scooter. "Truer words could not be said at the moment. It's already five past ten and we only have until twelve."

The distance between the four lengthened out as they traveled on wheels to the other end of the sewer. Yumi's skateboard was already propped up and the manhole cover was already removed when Odd got there. Yumi extended a hand to help Odd up and then they both reached in to help Ulrich and Jeremie up.

"What, so now we're on a time schedule?" Ulrich asked Jeremie with a scowl.

"Yes," Jeremie said resolutely. Ulrich and Yumi exchanged a puzzled look.

"Okay, Jer, what do you know what we don't?" Yumi said as they ran for the ropes to bring them down to the elevator.

"I'll explain in the lab room," Jeremie panted, jumping out for his rope and skidding down like the rest of them.

When they got to the elevator and pressed the down key, it didn't budge. Jeremie banged on it and Odd swore when he realized what happened. "Power outage effected here too. I forgot. We're taking the long way down."

------------

"Hurry, guys, get to the scanner room. We already wasted enough time by not using the elevator," Jeremie said hurriedly, already in the chair in front of the super computer and adjusting his headset communicator.

"Wait, wait, wait," Yumi said, holding out her hands and stopping all movement. "I think you owe me and Ulrich an explanation."

"Please, Yumi, we don't have time…"

"I don't care," Yumi said resolutely. "And why are we on a time schedule anyway?"

Jeremie sighed and took a deep breath. Then, in a rush, he explained to them how the return sequence was disrupted before and everything he had attained from the code. "But, I know how to fix it. I had Aelita hack into Xana's database and trick Xana into thinking that he was attacking the school again in the same way as last time." He shrugged at the look on Yumi and Ulrich's faces, something between horror and blankness. "What? I figured she could do that because she is part of Xana too, in a way. So, she obviously was successful. Now you just have to go in there and deactivate the tower, which should be the same one as before. Only this time, no hitting the tower when Aelita does the code back to the past."

"And the time stamp?" Ulrich demanded impatiently. He looked a bit angry.

"Ah, that's the only catch. I figured out that everything would work as long as this relived day was the same as the first time we lived it. So, that means we have to deactivate the tower and go back to the past before the next day. Otherwise…" Jeremie paused and looked away from his friends awkwardly. "Otherwise, we'll be stuck like this forever."

Suddenly, Aelita's face appeared on the screen. "Hurry, Jeremie! The monsters have realized what has happened." She looked a little frenzied.

"We're coming, Aelita!" Odd said heroically and took off quickly for the elevator. Yumi felt a pang of jealousy as Odd passed her. Immediately she tried combating it with her mind. _That was just a trick of Xana. You don't really like him, Yumi, you don't…_

"I can't believe this is why I can't go on a date to the movies with Sissi," Ulrich said, storming after Odd to the elevator. Yumi and Jeremie exchanged a stunned look. _Well, obviously he isn't wasting any time with telling himself that its Xana's doing._

"I really hope that we don't stay this way forever," Yumi said as she ran after the boys to the elevator.

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"Ready everyone? Transfer Yumi…transfer Odd…transfer Ulrich…scanner Yumi…scanner Odd…scanner Ulrich…virtualization."

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Author's note: Wow! Thank you so much for all my reviews! There are way too many to say all of you, so wait until the last chapter (which isn't far). If you've read any of my other stories before, you know I give a grand total shout out to everyone who has ever reviewed my story, because you guys deserve it so so much. So, I'll save it until then. I do have to say, THANK YOU ANIME BUBBLES! Don't worry, no fluffy stuff other than that kiss on the forehead. I don't think I would have been able to handle writing it. (GROSS.) And I would be scared too aZn sIsTeR 92. AHHH...hehe. And all you smart smart people guessed correctly who Aelita likes. She was effected too! So, I'll stop blabbering and give you time to leave a review if desired! Thanks again for reading! Hugs and cookies to all!


	4. Commotion

**COMMOTION  
**…_ten minutes to get this party crashed…  
_-------------------------------------------------

As Yumi dropped down onto the thick mossy pathways of the forest region she suddenly wished she wasn't there. It seemed as if she was only here hours ago, which was technically the truth. She turned her attention to the walkways nearby. Odd materialized and dropped out of midair on one to her left and Ulrich on one to her right. They ran forward and met at where the paths intersected.

Ulrich scanned the thick green-tinged trunks all around them, noting any disturbance. "Where's Aelita, Jeremie?" he asked immediately.

"In an tower nearby. I'm pretty sure you will be able to see it from here."

Yumi squinted straight ahead and pointed. "There!" Immediately, they took off.

When they got closer, they realized that retrieving Aelita wasn't going to be as easy as it looked. There was a ring of roachsters all around the tower, shooting at it. Higher up, buzzing in a moving circle up in the air, was a ring of hornets, also shooting at the tower. Before the monsters spotted them. Yumi pushed Ulrich behind a mound of mossy rocks to their right and she yanked Odd after her to crouch behind a mossy mound of rocks to their left.

"I'm assuming you did that because you have a plan," Ulrich hissed, rubbing the spot on his shoulder where Yumi had pushed him. She had done it kind of hard.

"Of course, stupid. Now, since you don't have any long range attacks, you jump in with Triplicate and try to wreck as much havoc as you can. Odd and I will back you up with an long range assault. Got it?"

Ulrich nodded and without further ado, he leapt up and ran toward the monsters, yelling, "Triplicate!" Instantly, two more Ulrich slid out of the original. All three of them drew their swords as one.

As soon as Ulrich had left his cover, Yumi scampered quickly to where Ulrich had been. As soon as Odd and her had seen Ulrich multiply himself, Yumi nodded to Odd and they both started their part of the plan. Odd concentrated on the roachsters, shooting three dead right off the bat. Yumi flicked her fan high and sheared off two hornets before her fan came back to her. She cocked back her wrist immediately and did it again.

In no time at all, the coast was clear and Aelita emerged carefully from the interior of the tower. When she saw the three warriors before her and nothing else, her face broke into a smile. "Oh, Ulrich!" she said then, throwing her arms around Ulrich's neck without warning. "Thank you so much for saving me!" Ulrich backed up and looked around at his other two friends, trying to plead with his eyes for some help.

"Hey," Odd said indignantly. "I helped kill those monsters too, you know."

"Come on guys, we have no time to lose," Jeremie said, cutting into the "happy" reunion. Aelita nodded in agreement and let go of Ulrich reluctantly to lead the pack. They didn't question her about where the tower was. All of them already knew from last time. Odd muttered unpleasant things under his breath the whole way, as Yumi kept on shooting him worried glances and Aelita dirty looks.

Right on cue, four crabs barreled in on them at one particularly wide intersection, cutting off every direction. All of them charged up as one. Aelita squealed and clutched at Ulrich, ducking behind him, as if that would give her all the protection she needed. Odd scowled at that and turned to face the monsters.

"Be careful, guys! And make sure to protect Yumi. I mean…Aelita."

Yumi had already deflected the first shot from a crab. She hadn't had time to calculate the angle though, so it ricocheted off randomly, hitting a nearby tree trunk, causing wood to splinter into pieces there. Then she flipped out of the way of another shot while letting her fan fly at another crab. The fan gashed the crab across the front and drained some lifepoints, but the crab merely shook itself and straightened up again, charging up.

Odd bounded around, taking advantage of his cat nature. He never seemed to be able to get high enough though. Finally he sprinted toward Yumi, yelling, "Yumi! Leg up!" Yumi automatically cupped her hands into a foothold and as Odd stepped up into it, she pushed him up with all her strength. Odd fired one laser arrow at the crab opposite him and another at the one he was flying toward. The one he was closest to exploded first, but the other one did just as Odd rolled to a stop on the ground. Yumi grinned at Odd's great feat. Odd grinned as well and looked at Aelita for approval. However she had her mouth covered with her hands and she was looking up at Ulrich in horror.

Ulrich had gathered up his speed and finally launched himself into the air with it. However, before he could strike, the crab he was flying toward just finished charging up. It let one huge laser loose and it hit Ulrich full in the chest. As he was flying back, the crab behind him had also finished charging up. The crab behind him, as a result, hit Ulrich from the back shortly after. Ulrich went flying forward again, his face contorted in pain. Aelita gave a little scream as Odd went to go and try to catch his friend.

Yumi stepped up and blocked two shots from the crabs, which had charged up again. Then she let one past her on purpose, the shot hitting Aelita in the shoulder instead. Aelita staggered back and Yumi resisted a smirk. _That's for stealing all my crush's attention_, she found her heart saying. In her mind, however, she felt a tad guilty. Especially when Jeremie admonished her for letting that hit get past her. "You're better than that, Yumi. I know you are."

Yumi swiftly finished off one crab by cutting it down to size. After her fan sheared off the crab's legs, she then exploded it with a smart flick to the Xana symbol. Just as the one behind her was going to hit her with its laser, Odd slid in and shot it into pieces. Yumi turned around breathlessly and smiled at Odd. "Thanks. I owe you one."

Odd smiled back at her and winked. "Nah, don't mention it." Yumi almost melted and then did smirk at Aelita. Aelita didn't see, however; she was busy worrying over Ulrich and how he was feeling.

They continued on their way to the activated tower and when they got there, the monsters were waiting, just as they knew they would be. Two megatanks rolled around and around the tower entrance and a few roachsters milled around at the base of the tower as well. Jeremie's voice suddenly made its way to them. "Please hurry. You guys have ten minutes to get this party crashed."

Aelita nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, I can still dive through the monsters like last time and hurry up with the code. But this time you guys can't let anything hit tower, got it?"

Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd nodded. Aelita took one last lingering look at Ulrich and then sprinted her way toward the tower. Just like last time, she timed it perfectly and slipped in between the two rolling megatanks. By the time the roachsters had started shooting, Aelita was already in the tower, waiting for the volley of lasers to stop.

Without hesitating, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd plunged into the monsters, weapons out and thrashing. Odd jumped on top of a rolling megatank and kept balance on it as it rolled like he was part of a circus act as he shot off roachsters left and right. Ulrich tried to draw off the other megatank as Yumi covered him from the roachster shots.

"Uh-oh! Two laser arrows left!" Odd announced a couple minutes later. He jumped off the megatank and quickly ran to one side as the megatank snapped open just as fast and tried to hit him. The megatank missed and instead demolished two roachsters in the way. Yumi immediately jumped in front of him to protect him.

"Save them," she yelled at him over the loud noise of battle. "You'll need them to take the last megatank."

"YES!" Odd said, doing a little dance as Yumi blocked off more shots for him. "I love destroying those guys!"

------------

Aelita stepped into the middle of the Xana symbol, the sounds of the fight totally gone in the serene tower. She was gently flown up to the next level and here she also stepped lightly onto the platform. Then, as she had done many times before, she walked to the center of this one and put out an outstretched hand. A screen beeped into existence and the word "CODE:" appeared on it in those familiar white letters…

------------

"Now!" Odd yelled to himself, firing his last two laser arrows, one right after the other, at the megatank that was right beside the tower, charging up at him. One hit right on the mark and the megatank exploded in a shower of broken pieces. The other laser arrow, however, sped on past the now destroyed megatank and continued in Ulrich's direction. "Uh-oh," Odd mumbled under his breath as he watched tensely.

Just at that moment, Yumi's fan finished off the last two roachsters she was going after. It curved back and Yumi gasped as she realized what was going to happen. Directly in the return path of her fan was the tower and she hadn't known her fan to take detours before. "NO!" she screamed loudly.

Ulrich, at the same time, had just killed the last roachster and monster that the three of them had faced. He turned at the sound of Yumi's voice and saw the fan. His eyes widened and, by instinct, he swung his sword around, trying to hit the fan. He did so and the fan went spinning off into the tree trunks, almost as if he had hit a homerun.

The problem with this was that now Ulrich's sword was closing in on the tower's base. Ulrich had no way of pulling back because he had thrown all his momentum into deflecting Yumi's fan. Ulrich closed his eyes and waited for the jar of the hit…

Just at that moment, the extra laser arrow that Odd had shot collided into the tip of Ulrich's sword. Ulrich felt the jarring sensation, but it made him swing the other way. Not able to hold onto the sword much longer, he let it go and it skid to a stop in the mossy pathway a little ways away.

It was then that all three at the same time realized just how miraculous that whole chain of events was. All at once, they started whooping and celebrating, coming in for a group hug…

------------

Aelita's hand reached forward again and typed in "LYOKO" in those same white letters. Then she smiled as she watched all the different windows on the side of the tower fly downwards and out of sight.

------------

"Return to the past now!"

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Author's note: So apparently is being a little fussy right now, eh? Sorry, reviewers! Hopefully we'll get that resolved soon. So for now, I just want to say that I love you all, like always, thank you so much for reviewing my story and please leave another! I love to hear from all of you! And yes, one more chapter after this one (please do not cry, like I deserve your tears; I'm not that good of a writer yet) which will be short. So you were warned. But at least it will be over. And no, no catch. I know I usually write an elaborate plot line that takes forever to unravel but like I told you in the very beginning, this one was a short random thought strand that turned into a short story. So enjoy and pwease review!


	5. Continuation

**CONTINUATION  
**…_everything back to normal again…  
_----------------------------------------------

Yumi woke up in her bed, safe and snug. She realized that it wasn't morning of the next day, but morning of the day she had just been in…again again. Sound even weirder than before? That's because it was.

"Sweetheart! Get up! You're going to be late for school." Her mother's voice drifted to her from downstairs, just like every morning. Yumi yawned, stretched, threw her covers back and quickly dressed into her normal black clothes. Then she ran downstairs with her black backpack in hand. She dropped the backpack next to the door on the way to the kitchen.

Her mom met her in the kitchen with a big grin. Yumi said her good mornings and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She loved cereal, all crunchy and sweet and soggy when they soak in the warm milk.

Breakfast was her favorite meal of the day. It got her ready for anything the day could dish out…again again…

------------

"Rise and shine, Ulrich!" Odd said, mauling Ulrich violently with his white pillow. Ulrich jumped and awoke, growling and attempting to tackle Odd to the ground.

"Odd, shut up and go back to sleep. It's too early."

"Early? It's not early! It's time for breakfast! And we wouldn't want to miss that now, would we? Anyway, we've already been through this twice before. You know what happens after you say, 'I hate breakfast. Breakfast is too early,' in that whiny voice of yours and you know what happens after I say back, 'Too bad, buddy boy.'" Odd grinned widely.

Ulrich grumbled and sat up. "Fine. You win. For now."

Odd nodded resolutely. "I sure do."

------------

"I hate reliving days," Ulrich said, lounging on a bench in the sun as the group waited for Yumi and for class to start…again again…for the day. "You think it'd be good for students like me who never pay attention the first time class comes around. But I just end up falling to sleep even earlier the second time around because I've already heard all the things the teachers have to say, which isn't anything important anyway. And the third time around, let's not even bring that up."

"Oh well," Odd said, glancing up as Jeremie joined the two of them on the bench underneath a tree. "Hey, Jeremie. Congratulations about making everything back to normal again. I no longer need to ask you if you talked to Aelita yet."

"But I did," Jeremie said, flashing his two friends a smile. "She says that Lyoko is back to normal, again."

"That's good," Yumi said with a smile as she joined her friends at the spot they had met in the mornings for three straight times. "Hey, Ulrich," she said, with a grin, sitting next to Ulrich this time. Ulrich grinned back at her and slid an arm slyly around her waist.

"I was thinking," he whispered into her ear. "Now that we pretty much know that we have feelings for each other, let's just…well, you know…" He wrapped his other arm around her waist as well, pulling her closer to him.

Yumi smiled and relaxed in his arms. "Not yet, Ulrich Stern. You have to write me a note. And give me a rose."

"Are you serious, Yumi?" Ulrich asked, remembering the rose escapade the last time they relived the day. "Come on, just spare me the roses…"

"I'm totally serious, Ulrich. And you have to get me that rose."

"Uggggh," he said, burying his face in her black hair that was already warm from the sun. "Fine, fine. I'll do that again and get my hands all scratched and bloodied…just for you."

"Aw, you're sweet," Yumi said, reaching up and tapping Ulrich on the nose.

"Ulrich!" Sissi strutted up followed by a few of her closest girl friends. Yumi sighed and looked up at the incoming Queen of Annoyingland. Then she slid a glance at Ulrich and felt her heart flutter and relax in relief at the same time. No trace of any blushing was visible, which was good. Her mind had a field day as well. _Haha…loser Sissi. No Ulrich for you!_

"Go away," Ulrich said in a bored tone. Sissi threw her face into the air and walked away again.

"I was going to ask you to help me with my English homework, but I guess now I'll just have to ask Herb," she said, her unimportant voice trailing off into nothingness.

"Well, that was a pathetic attempt at trying to get you jealous," Odd said, nudging Ulrich in the ribs. "Although the last time you were here, I do remember you calling Sissi pretty."

Ulrich nudged Odd back, sharper. "That was Xana talking. But never, never again."

"Good," Yumi said, leaning her head on Ulrich's shoulder. Just as she finished talking the bell rang.

**THE END**

**

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**Author's note: HOPE YOU LIKED IT! Yes, its done now. So, reviewer shout out, even though is being a butt and doesn't want us to do that:** aZn sIsTeR 92, hearts and flowers, dreamcaster555, American-Kitty, aZn dReAmEr xD, Doggiegal, Amaherst, yellow alien, brianna, Anime Bubbles, LiStEn2UrHeArT2, Vic92091, Luna, Moonlit Sea, and Angels 'n Dreams! THANK YOU ALL**! And thank you all my reviewers that might review after I write this. Thanks for making this whim seem actually kinda worthwhile. Now, pwease review! Thanks for reading! 


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